Surgery can be done without prophylactic antibiotics. Elective surgeries are general clean procedures and some studies don't recommend use of antibiotics. I am not a surgeon and not well versed so no further comments. Use of ayurveda had any role in the above case we cannot say without doing an RCT. And these silly things make it to news here in india and people get misleaded so easily.
except however that here this octogenarian gentleman's condition of benign prostrate fell into the 'clean contaminated' category that requires administration of 'atleast 3 doses of prophylactic antibiotics', while he has had a lifelong history of severe reactions to antibiotics. recovery however after this procedure was observed to be "unusually faster". from what i vaguely recall (not sure) when i had come across this news on TV at that time, he was kept on some concoctions & meds which included formulations of black pepper, turmeric etc post-surgery to prevent infections.
some more interesting reading about this case here:
The role of Ayurveda management in preventing surgical site infections instead of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis - PMC
It is probably for the first time in the history of modern surgery that Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH) surgery which belongs to ‘clean contaminated’ class and requires at least 3 doses of prophylactic antibiotic as per recommendations by American ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov